Miss-Delectable
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06199/706545-85.stm
For eight days in January, Karen Gallagher could not answer her 10- and 13-year-old children's incessant questions about where their father was. She had no idea whether her husband was dead or alive.
As it turned out, Robert P. Gallagher was in one of the few places she hadn't looked. The 50-year-old Brookline man had been locked up in the Allegheny County Jail for driving an uninsured and unregistered car and for disorderly conduct. And despite multiple attempts, he had been unable to contact her.
Mr. Gallagher, who is deaf, could have made his bail of about $250 on the day of his arrest had he been able to communicate with his wife, he told warden Ramon Rustin at yesterday's City-County Task Force on Disability meeting, Downtown.
Mr. Rustin, who has been at the helm of the institution for just under two years, listened to a handful of testimonials like Mr. Gallagher's and told the task force and about 25 audience members he was very open to improving communications systems for "special needs" inmates at the prison: for example, making TTY phones available on every pod, putting in video-relay phone technology, calling on sign language interpreters on a regular basis and training corrections officers in communication techniques to use with disabled inmates.
"We don't do a good job of predicting every type of accommodation" inmates need, he said. "We need to be educated and figure out what Allegheny County can do to meet those needs."
He promised to research accessibility systems at other jails, adding if he could get the necessary money, "we may even be a pilot jail, we may be on the cutting edge."
Currently, inmates are given a pen and paper if they cannot communicate with intake workers, but some deaf people are illiterate or know limited written English. American Sign Language has its own syntax, said task force member Paul O'Hanlon.
Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act may be a financial, cultural and technological challenge for the new warden, Mr. O'Hanlon said, but it should not be insurmountable.
Currently, inmates must submit requests to use the TTY machine, which is not available for unplanned collect calls that inmates make daily on the pods.
Former inmate Larry Hockenberry told the warden through a sign language interpreter he had been incarcerated three times and felt very isolated because he could not communicate. He suggested the jail install visual alarms since hearing inmates know their cells are unlocked by the sound the doors make.
During this free time, Mr. Gallagher said other inmates on the pod entered his cell and stole some of his belongings.
"I had none of my medications. My wife didn't know my whereabouts and I made numerous requests for a TTY machine," said Mr. Gallagher, who lost his hearing as a child. He did not have an interpreter at his arraignment.
After the meeting, Mr. Rustin said he found it difficult to believe Mr. Gallagher, who is able to vocalize clearly, had gone eight days without any response from prison personnel, but he recognized that the jail needs to learn to anticipate inmates' needs.
"The ADA is an unfunded law," said Joanne Lengle, director of one of two interpreting services in the city. Ideally, sign language interpreters or lip readers would be present upon the arrest, booking, intake and hearings for all deaf suspects, she said.
For eight days in January, Karen Gallagher could not answer her 10- and 13-year-old children's incessant questions about where their father was. She had no idea whether her husband was dead or alive.
As it turned out, Robert P. Gallagher was in one of the few places she hadn't looked. The 50-year-old Brookline man had been locked up in the Allegheny County Jail for driving an uninsured and unregistered car and for disorderly conduct. And despite multiple attempts, he had been unable to contact her.
Mr. Gallagher, who is deaf, could have made his bail of about $250 on the day of his arrest had he been able to communicate with his wife, he told warden Ramon Rustin at yesterday's City-County Task Force on Disability meeting, Downtown.
Mr. Rustin, who has been at the helm of the institution for just under two years, listened to a handful of testimonials like Mr. Gallagher's and told the task force and about 25 audience members he was very open to improving communications systems for "special needs" inmates at the prison: for example, making TTY phones available on every pod, putting in video-relay phone technology, calling on sign language interpreters on a regular basis and training corrections officers in communication techniques to use with disabled inmates.
"We don't do a good job of predicting every type of accommodation" inmates need, he said. "We need to be educated and figure out what Allegheny County can do to meet those needs."
He promised to research accessibility systems at other jails, adding if he could get the necessary money, "we may even be a pilot jail, we may be on the cutting edge."
Currently, inmates are given a pen and paper if they cannot communicate with intake workers, but some deaf people are illiterate or know limited written English. American Sign Language has its own syntax, said task force member Paul O'Hanlon.
Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act may be a financial, cultural and technological challenge for the new warden, Mr. O'Hanlon said, but it should not be insurmountable.
Currently, inmates must submit requests to use the TTY machine, which is not available for unplanned collect calls that inmates make daily on the pods.
Former inmate Larry Hockenberry told the warden through a sign language interpreter he had been incarcerated three times and felt very isolated because he could not communicate. He suggested the jail install visual alarms since hearing inmates know their cells are unlocked by the sound the doors make.
During this free time, Mr. Gallagher said other inmates on the pod entered his cell and stole some of his belongings.
"I had none of my medications. My wife didn't know my whereabouts and I made numerous requests for a TTY machine," said Mr. Gallagher, who lost his hearing as a child. He did not have an interpreter at his arraignment.
After the meeting, Mr. Rustin said he found it difficult to believe Mr. Gallagher, who is able to vocalize clearly, had gone eight days without any response from prison personnel, but he recognized that the jail needs to learn to anticipate inmates' needs.
"The ADA is an unfunded law," said Joanne Lengle, director of one of two interpreting services in the city. Ideally, sign language interpreters or lip readers would be present upon the arrest, booking, intake and hearings for all deaf suspects, she said.
